62 Proceedings. 



[Microscopical and Natural History Section.'] 



Ordinary Meeting, November 4th, 1889. 



Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S., President 

 of the Section, in the Chair. 



Mr. THOS. ROGERS exhibited the fruit of Gunnera scabra, 

 now almost naturalized in Jersey, and Mr. CHARLES Bailey 

 described a peculiar gland found on the cotyledon of this 

 plant. 



Dr. ALEX. HODGKINSON described the rattle of the 

 Rattlesnake, and shewed a specimen ; and by connecting 

 this with a battery demonstrated the noise the snake 

 makes. 



Mr. James Cosmo Melvill exhibited a full series of 

 the varieties and near allies of Olivancillaria gibbosa (Born), 

 and remarked that this mollusc, perhaps better known by 

 the name of Oliva utriculus (Gmelin) now superseded, is 

 abundant in many parts of the Eastern hemisphere, its head- 

 quarters being Tropical African, but impinging on Ceylonese 

 and Mauritian coasts, and likewise extending as far as the 

 Philippines (Cuming). It is perhaps one of the best known 

 of all the family, but, in common with O. Brasiliana, nebulosa, 

 acuminata, hiatula, and others, was relegated to new genera, 

 Agaronia {Gray) and Olivancillaria (Bolt) owing to the 

 possession of an operculum, which the typical forms of 

 genus are without. In build also it is unusually massive, and 

 the suture of the spire is more or less filled with a thick white 

 callous deposit. Remarkably uniform in its general appear- 

 ance and form, it possesses one well marked colour variety, 

 probably from the sunny coral reefs of Mauritius, of a pale 



